They look like characters from a Graham Greene novel, these mug shots of petty criminals from Newcastle, England. Each face suggests its own tale of hardship, poverty, seedy boarding houses, cobble-stone streets, smoky pubs, and fierce, grubby violence. One died in action, another in the Blitz. They dazed with need, or as William Burroughs once said:

‘The face of evil is always the face of total need.’

These mug shots came from a Newcastle Police ID Book, which had been discarded in a junk shop, where it was discovered and then donated to the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Via Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums, with thanks to Retronaut